The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In the aviation industry it is important to periodically update maps of geographic areas such as airports and airport runways. This is to make sure that pilots have up to date charts that clearly show all the structural features (buildings, antennas, roads, etc.) that are located at or near an airport. Pilots typically rely on information provided in an airport mapping database (“AMDB”) that includes maps of airports.
When the maps in an AMBD are updated to reflect changes (i.e., new features) in the maps, such updating is typically performed manually using an independent entity that specializes in providing this service. The new features are typically identified by comparing new satellite imagery of predetermined geographic areas with older satellite imagery. Ground control points (“GCPs”) are often used to improve geographic accuracy of the image. A highly trained analyst (i.e., an individual) visually compares every vector feature in a given database with the corresponding raster region in the newly obtained new satellite image to detect feature changes in the scenes represented by the two satellite images. If a new or changed feature is found, it will be identified (i.e., “captured”) and stored into the AMBD database. There is typically little or no automated or computer-assisted evaluation of the satellite images; the analyst is often strictly responsible for visually detecting any new features present in the latest acquired satellite image(s).
As will be appreciated, having an individual manually perform AMBD change detection typically result in an extremely human intensive, non-automated, and cost intensive process. There may also be an increased risk that a visually difficult to detect new feature may not be detected by the analyst. Manually performed AMBD updating is also typically time consuming and can sometimes take weeks to complete.